


Misao of the Fire Nation

by Julyza



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 1920s, Arranged Marriage, Drama & Romance, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Love Triangles, Nurses & Nursing, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, nonbender nurses, time between legend of Korra and the Last Airbender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-07-13 15:57:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16021211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julyza/pseuds/Julyza
Summary: The life and romances of Lady Misao Nakamura, the non-bending wife of General Iroh. Follow as Misao as she embraces the newfound independence and navigates through what hides behind the curtain of the glamour and polite smiles of the wealthy members of High Society.





	1. Chapter 1

"It's only three months, Tarrlok", Misao had repeated after her boyfriend, Council Page of the Northern Water Tribe Councilman, once again gave his opinion on her joining the twenty-nine nurses going to man the hospitals in the Si Wong Desert."You make it sound like I am never coming back".

"Can you blame me, you are being sent to a hospital in the middle of the War. That War has had almost as much casualties as the Six Hundred Day Seige."Tarrlok murmured before kissing her in an attempt to make her change her mind, but Misao had made up her mind when Kya, the late Avatar's daughter, had made the announcement at the charity luncheon two months ago. She could not back out now, her clothing was packed and she would be boarding the airship taking her to the historical General Fong base, where they would take a train to Zafou where they would send them to the hospitals overflowing with Sand benders and United Forces alike at the base just outside the misty palms oasis. They would have taken an airship straight to the Misty Palms Oasis, but the rebel tribes had shot down the airship with King Kuei's son and grandson as they made their way to safety.

"It's too late for me to back out now, if I don't go not only will I regret it for the rest of my life, the Press will love ". Misao strongly disliked that Tarrlok cared more about his public image more than embracing the progressive movements to leave the backwards and sexist traditions. Which was why they were having this tender moment inside her Grandmother's Sato Mobile, he could not even bring himself to forget propriety for what could be their last moments together.

"I know, sweetheart, which is why I am personally seeing you off at the Base". Misao was unsure how to feel about that. Contrary to popular belief, it was not because he was born a lower class untitled man. She liked Tarrlok, at least she thinks she does, but she knows nothing about his past or him, really, and that made her doubt the authenticity of her feelings. He tried to monopolize her attentions; he refused to reveal his past save for a father with dementia and a long dead mother who died when he was twelve.

"Really, I thought you hated goodbyes", Misao pushed her doubts to the back of her mind and tried to enjoy the moment because she could die in Si Wong for all they know.

(General Fong Memorial Base)

"You know I always thought that I would be the one getting on the train, but it seems Yue and La had other plans", Tarrlok escorts her to the train after she had said her goodbyes to her family, surprisingly her conservative mother had allowed Tarrlok to give a not exactly private farewell.

"Just promise me you won't run off with another girl, even if it's the Queen Hou-Ting and she forces you at gun-point" Misao giggles trying to push the dangers awaiting her in Si Wong.

"I won't, I promise, M", He then takes both of her hands and does the unthinkable. Tarrlok gets down on one knee and takes out a box from the best jewelers in Republic City before saying the words Misao has been dying to hear and at the same time does not wish for Tarrlok to be the one speaking them." Will you marry me?"

The betrothal necklace is beautiful done in a much more modern design with a moonstone the size of her thumb as the sole jewel in the thin silver chain, and its realness makes her realize that she does not know the answer to Tarrlok's question.

"I have to go", she mutters and the train announces its imminent departure.

" I will be waiting for your answer when you come back", Tarrlok gives her the box containing the beautiful moonstone necklace.


	2. Chapter 2

I can't believe Tarrlok proposed!" Kimiko her best friend from nursing school and the Junior League of Charities exclaimed a bit too loudly in the dormitories of the makeshift hospital on the outskirts of the now enormous city that the Misty Palms had evolved into." That is a very pretty stone he got you, my betrothal necklace looks cheap and ugly compared to yours".

"I can't believe you left him without an answer. I thought you had feelings for him, M", Ting-Ting a recently widowed friend of theirs said from the bed across hers and Kimiko's.

"I do, well at least I think I do. It is just that he will not tell me anything about him, all I know is that his parents are dead and middle class", Misao admitted before taking the black satin case from Kimiko and hiding it in her suitcase for safety." Besides he wasn't supposed to propose until I came back, at least that was what the deal we made".

"Oh. For a moment, you made me forget that it is political marriage. I thought your answer was supposed to be yes", Ting-Ting did not try to disguise her disgust in her voice.

"Well, you have three months to make up your mind. If you decide you can't continue the charade , your grandmother could send you to the Fire Nation for a season and Tarrlok gets to pick between a Miss Wong and Lady Jissika", Kimiko, who is arranged to marry the charming half-nephew of Lady Katara, mentions casually seeing as Hakoda the Younger is the third match her parents have found her.

* * *

 

(Four months ago, Misao's bedroom in the townhouse)

"It's a political marriage, Mimi", Hisa continues to sell the idea, "you get to continue your charity work with the Junior League and he gets rid of the stink of new money". Money and Status is all that matters in the Downtown District and the beautiful estates outside the City. If Tarrlok wanted to win the seat in the Council, he had to have a girlfriend and wife of good breeding. Good breeding, she scoffs, they might as well be talking about ostrich horses. Akira, on the other hand, would marry the only granddaughter of the late King Bumi of Omashu. She would envy her brother's luck if the lady in question did not believe lipstick was for tramps.

"No, no and no". Misao was adamant about her decision. "I can't marry Tarrlok. I don't know him or even like him that way".

"You have a year until the wedding, you date him for six months and get engaged the rest of the year", her older sister, who was sold off to the thirty-six year old president of Cabbage Corp at age sixteen. Her sister was only four years older at twenty-four, but she had four children already. "He is only four years older than you and as far as we know he is not like... like him". Her beautiful sister could not even bare to say her husband's name.

The sounds of the bombs felt a lot closer than the United Forces Colonel had said they were. Misao being unaccustomed to sleeping through bombs, woke up with a startled gasp." Why did I volunteer for this?" she muttered before trying to drown out the explosions and the not entirely imagined screams of the wounded. She could hear army trucks racing down the dirt road of the hospital that used to be a school, Misao wondered if their first day of work would begin, exactly six hours after the abandoned boarding school had become a modest hospital lacking most of the necessary equipment.

"Ladies, we have patients in need of medical attention, please dress as quickly as possible and remember your training", Kya , the now Hospital Director, said loud enough to wake the nine girls sleeping in the same room as Misao.

Misao really did not like when the scenarios in her mind turned into reality.

* * *

 

(two months ago)

After her mother suspended her chi blocking classes and her father curtailed her pin money for two months, Misao caved in to their schemes and decided to give Tarrlok a chance and start what feels like her imminent death.

Tarrlok looked handsome in his suit, which was coordinated to match with the creamy Delphos her mother had gotten her for the occasion. The story was that she and Tarrlok had met during a party before having a formal introduction two days later when she was visiting her grandmother at work. The first part of the fake romance was false; Tarrlok would have rather died than be seen at such a party in the new money part of the City.

"I know we have only met twice, but I just need you to know that I hope we can grow to love each other". Love was hard to come by when your family has the ear of almost every world leader and enough yuans to sponsor the building of the Republic City Tower.

To most girls in her situation, it is sincere and heartfelt, but to her it feels clichéd and false.

* * *

 

Misao scrubbed the blood from her hands, as did the other nurses having their turn in the modest bathrooms sporting five sinks to match the five stalls. The miniscule amount of supplies was beginning to disappear on the thirty soldiers that had been the first patients of the Avatar Aang Memorial Hospital. Perhaps, she could send a letter to her grandmother (or Tarrlok) asking for more supplies if it looks like they will not make it to the end of the week.

She dried her hands, straightened the apron on her uniform and left the bathroom. She could not wait for her shift to be over.


	3. Chapter 3

"Take these papers to Lady Kya and after that make sure to check the Prince's vitals", the plain metal bending surgeon ordered. Errands and vitals were all they let her do. Why could not she have been born a bender?

Non-Benders were hardly taken seriously by their bending counterparts in most fields, especially in the medical field, the police and the Armed Forces. Water-bending healers could speedup up the body's natural healing process and use their blood bending for something either than brainwashing. Fire benders sterilized their own instruments and prevented almost ninety percent of the preventable infections plaguing a makeshift hospital, and metal benders could bend all the shrapnel, bullets and even splintered bone fractures in the most complicated surgeries, that was not counting how they could bend their implements for efficiency. Prince Iroh's abdominal injuries could attest to Doctor Lei Chow's abilities.

"Why couldn't I have been born a bender?" Misao sighed as she plastered her serene mask and made her way to the hospital director's office. One of the documents waiting for Kya's approval included a visit from Princess Izumi and Misao's grandmother in a month. Hisa and Akira, their brother, had warned her about them. She was just relieved Tarrlok would not be there on behalf of Anik and her uncles. The letter had been awkward enough, she had to dance around the elephant in the room and ask for supplies. He, on the other hand, reminded her that her answer was supposed to be a yes and asked which northern water tribe traditions they would follow on their wedding ceremony and marriage.

The supplies had arrived just as they had used up at least ten blankets as bandages when they ran out on their seventy patients. The penicillin and morphine deliveries had yet to show up and two of the military doctors had to buy some off the black markets supplying the rebellious tribes. The painkillers were rationed and even then, they had used some local remedies from the Great War to make sure they did not run out. It was difficult, but she preferred this to making small talk with women who talked about being a homemaker, their husbands and having more children.

Misao knocked on the slightly opened door. Director Kya was angry, the Avatar's daughter was yelling at her brother, most likely due to his son's stay in the hospital's intensive care unit. She should leave, but Misao had to deliver the documents or else Doctor Chow would have her head. It was not eavesdropping if she had no choice, the chestnut haired nurse told herself. Besides, they were arguing far too loudly for her to pretend not to have heard them.

"How could you let him enlist, Bumi? Ursa is only five years old and Izumi is having a difficult time coping with her mother's death, if anything happened to Iroh -" Kya sounded worried, Princess Izumi had yet to take up her mother's duties and Fire Lady Mai had died a five months ago. Princess Izumi had always been close to her mother while Misao and Hisa would only cry what is considered acceptable: very little and with far too much dignity to lower themselves to scream and cry like some commoner.

Princess Yue, elder sister of the Water Tribe Chieftains, like all highborn women (not all apparently) left the raising of her children to Nannies, Governesses and anyone who knew she did not have the mother gene. Auntie Senna was probably the only woman in her family who did not hand her kid( the Avatar ,ironically) over to the nanny when she did anything that reminded company that Senna was lowborn.

"Don't you think Izumi is the only one who would suffer if Iroh become another casualty in this war?" Bumi uncharacteristically yells at his younger sister. Prince Iroh was supposed to be doing nothing in the Fire Nation Army, but instead he had enlisted as a Captain in the amphibious United Forces and was now recovering from surgery. Misao knocked again.

" Lady Kya, Dr. Chow wants you to sign these documents regarding the Council's visit", Misao says in that calm voice her upbringing and her very limited nursing experience has given her. Commander Bumi opens the door for her and it takes all of her strength and education not to run like one of those nurses fresh out of the Yugoda Nursing School a week ago at the sight of wounded men.

The Republic City nurse curtsies to the before explaining the documents to the Hospital Director. As much as Misao wanted to leave, she could not return to the Chief Surgeon's office empty handed. Both of the Avatar's children look like they are just waiting for her to leave and continue where they left off, making pleasantries far more awkward than they were supposed to be.

"Miss Nakamura, I heard Council Page Tarrlok popped the question right before you left. My sincere congratulations to the both of you", Bumi congratulates her as if she had said yes when she wanted to scream no. She thanks him politely and waits for Kya to finish. Why couldn't her parents just let her choose her own spouse instead of making deals involving antiquated things like dowries, contracts and stuff no one cared about anymore?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made Misao, Korra's cousin because in the real world royalty were related until like after Queen Elizabeth II became Queen . Like Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, is her cousin, and in this book I read about the affair of the last Tsar of Russia(not officially because he eloped with a divorced woman), all European royalty was related through Queen Victoria.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Which is the right decision? How do you know you're not making a mistake? Sometimes, the best option is to leave everything as it is.
> 
> (Netflix) Las Chicas del Cable/Cable Girls (Season 1 episode 8)

"How are you feeling this morning, your highness?" Misao asks softly seeing as he is still feeling the effects of the morphine used for his surgery. His men had arrived just as the medical supplies disappeared with just enough anesthesia and painkillers to make sure the future Fire Lord did not die. Foot soldiers and nobodies did not have precedence over a high-ranking officer or some rich heir, in a war that needed money and strategy if they were to win. She hated that, but she could not do much more than beg the man she does not want to marry or her Ice Queen of a mother for supplies.

He does not look like the dashing Prince charming her grandmother had paraded her and the female progeny of her six children. He does not look like the drunken soldier she kissed at the party she attended where she allegedly met Tarrlok. He looks just like any Fire Bender fighting in this war, just as she looks like any other nurse making sure those soldiers live to fight another day.

"Better, now that I know that my men didn't die in vain ". He smiled pensively remembering the sacrifice his comrades made in order to give their side the upper hand. He would not be smiling the moment he felt the pain his fractured arm, the surgery done on his stomach and the less serious injuries attesting to the hell he and his Company went through. "How long do you think my Aunt will keep me here?"

Prince Iroh's Company of nearly two hundred men came back with a little less than half their number, but they had managed not only to liberate two minor tribes, the Fire Nation Prince had brought back six valuable Prisoners. The rebel snipers used wooden arrows on mostly wooden crossbows; despite their numbers being mostly non-benders, they had nearly taken the Serpent's Pass and pushed them closer to the mountains, that was until the Fire Nation Prince gave them the two villages almost thirty miles away from the Misty Palms.

"If no infection or complications appear within forty-eight hours you will leave the this ward in five days, as for your arm, chances are from two weeks to a month if any water bending nurse or doctor continues the treatments and therapy. If Commander Bumi and Director Kya do not change their orders, I will be seeing you here for the next three to six months". He pouts like the spoiled Prince everyone thinks he is.

Her hands are cold, not that he complains, the nurse who checked on him yesterday could not get her hands to stop shaking enough to prep him for surgery.

"How angry are they?"he asks the moment she takes the thermometer out of his mouth Fire Benders ran two degrees higher than average making fevers harder to detect if the average temperature of a fire bender was hitting one-hundred degrees or if the nurse had not paid attention to her three-month nursing course, she could think the patient has a fever. Their heart rates were higher than others were and the oxygen saturation in the blood would always be at one-hundred percent, non-benders were just average on everything making them easier to study in school.

"It would be concerning if they did not feel shocked at finding you with one foot in the grave when you were supposed to be in the safety of your country". She did not tell him about hearing them yelling at each other,it would do more harm than good.

"I am surprised seeing you here, your grandmother pulled every string to keep Akira on guard duty, yet here you are in the thick of it". Ah yes, the question anyone who knew that she had an older brother asked.  
As the 'conflict' between bending and non-bending tribes grew and refused to end with Hou-Ting naming her non-bending half-sand bender great-nephew , men(and some women) from all nations were drafted or persuaded to enlist. Akira being the only male grandson the Most Honorable ,Marchioness Ayame of Nakamura had, their grandmother had made laws to ensure he would not see anything near the battlegrounds. She, as a daughter with no use beyond breeding, could do as she pleased as long as she did what her scheming family told her to do.

"Well, I am grandmother's favorite and usually my father cannot refuse me anything if I happen to have her approval no matter how much my mother disapproves", she whispered in order to lighten the mood, not that it would make them forget of the horrors they lived day to day. He would be plagued by whatever he had witnessed in battle and she could hear the wounded clamor for help she could not give them in her sleep.

"Do you regret it?" He asked when she meticulously removed the bandages in his abdomen to clean and redress with actual sterile bandages.

She did not regret signing away the choice to back out of her arranged marriage in order to do something that would make her life truly meaningful. 'What better way to kiss your freedom goodbye, than by becoming an army nurse', she wanted to say. Instead she answered," No, do you?"

"I only regret not enlisting sooner". He did not regret bribing that officer to forge his draft letter that would send him to the frontlines as a Captain instead of hiding behind his mother's robes as Admiral of whatever division had a sudden vacancy.


	5. Doing chores is a healthy alternative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Misao and Kimiko do the laundry while the latter gives the former advice on how to open up to her arranged fiance.

She wiped the sweat on her brow with the coarse sleeve of her uniform and continued to pin the stark white bed sheet on the wobbly clothesline metal bended by one of the soldiers guarding the hospital. Menial labor was something she had yet to get accustomed to, having relied on her family’s servants and the hospital staff to do everything in that field. Spirits, she had to wash and iron her own clothing, Lady Kya considered hired help an unnecessary commodity.

Princess Yue the Second would have a fit if she saw her younger daughter doing what they paid the help to do. Lord Taro would just ignore his wife’s nagging and think of ways to sneak off to fornicate with his mistress in the luxury apartment near the Theatre. Doing chores is a healthy alternative to acting like all is fine in front of the people who gawk at them as if they were fish in a bowl.

“This is the first time I have ever done the laundry and it is not even mine”. Kimi shudders at the thought of how the sheet looked prior to a very thorough washing. “Who would have thought we would end up doing this of our own accord?”

“Mother would have a litter if she knew I willingly touched a man’s undergarments”, Misao lets out a giggle as she bends down to grab a second bed sheet with some light scorch marks and other things that make it a candidate for emergency bandages. In the span of a month, she had learned how to cook basic meals, how to wash clothing in the washing machine (and a washboard) and that pretty embroidery not always translated to neat stitches. Kimi still could not even do the most basic types of sutures.

“Have you written to Tarrlok?”Kimiko asks briefly touching the letter in her apron pocket. It did not take a genius to know Kimiko Takahashi was head over heels and she treasured every word, no matter how ill written, he sent her every week.

“Yes and no”. She did try to write, but most of the time she just tossed it in the waste bin meant for hazardous waste. Misao, however, had not sent a single letter after the first fifteen days of the hospital’s grand opening.”I try to, I really do, but it just ends up sounding so monotonous and stiff. I just throw it away, honestly”.

“I would say I sympathize with you, but I am the most approachable one of our friends”. Kimi was the easiest to talk to one with her sunny personality and inability to think wrong of anyone and Ting was the perhaps her polar opposite, with her inability to tolerate any bullshit and cold demeanor. Misao liked to think she was somewhere in the middle, she was not as optimistic as Kimiko, but she was damn sure she was not as pessimistic as Ting-Ting was. “Have you tried pretending you are writing to someone you aren’t as awkward with, like Akira, your brother, or us, your friends since school?”

“Not really, maybe I will once I—we—have time, I honestly doubt Tarrlok would like to read about me doing laundry”. She could not tell useless her bending colleagues made her feel, despite graduating at the top of her class; he would not understand being a prodigal water bender tutored by her uncle.

“You don’t know that, Hakoda likes hearing about the weather and the Misty Palms”. Misao snorts, knowing the pretty Fire Nation/ Earth kingdom girl would not take offense. Of course, he would, the water tribes were rather dreary landscapes with endless ice and snow. The desert did have its charms, like being more than a thousand miles away from her future husband.

It was then that they heard it, the sirens blaring all over the army base in front of them and the city behind them.

“Agni, Yue and La”. Misao felt her heart drop before taking a petrified Kimiko and ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look a bit of plot.


	6. the best timing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A backstory for Amon's Lieutenant, Bumi has the best timing and Ting-Ting knows a lot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of Commader Kiyi being murdered belongs to JHLZ.NTL and its in their fic ‘the Princess’ Fire’ which I totally recommend to you.

The White Lotus has spies within the army and the Misty Palms to keep ten steps ahead from everybody. The retired Commander Kiyi had become injured when both distributing food to incoming refugees and getting crucial information about their enemy. Private Liling had sacrificed herself in vain and died instantly when shielding the bastard daughter of the late Princess Ursa.

It had taken three surgeries for the Doctors, all benders, to stabilize the sixty-year-old Firebender still sleeping off the last of the Hospital's anesthesia; he on the other hand had to bite a rag to keep from screaming in agony. The Rebel snipers with their wooden bullets and poisonous darts had managed to hit the trusting old wolfbat even after Liling got her to safety.

Liling, the one who assured him he was not some apathetic monster. Liling, the one who left him here in this cruel world alone and across the reason she is returning to Republic City in an urn. Liling, the one whose death he needed to avenge in the only way he saw fit.

The same enemy that had kidnapped and tortured him and his squad before Prinny and his band of benders rescued them and took his glory. He had orchestrated his capture and had sacrificed the life of his Earthbending Captain in order to  show the fucking world that a nonbender could be as good, no, better than a fucking bender.

The only person who had not abandoned him, Private Liling, was dead all because the hospital declared a poor as dirt nonbender was not as important as the Wolfbat taking up the bed next to him. The stupid ugly daughter of the beautiful fabled Ursa was not very useful to the Red Lotus, or the rebels, but he knew someone who would pay handsomely for her head.

"Help! Commander Kiyi isn't breathing!" the Lieutenant screamed convincingly. He could not claim the bounty the New Ozai Society would give him if he were to be caught minutes after he smothered her with her pillow. He had not expected the Avatar's homosexual daughter to be the first one inside the tiny room.

The dense waterbender had probably been healing the spoiled Prince playing hero two doors down; he only hoped her dear nephew had kept her attention long enough for her not to even sense the assassination. The Metalbending Doctor, on the other hand, may be more difficult to fool, with the Seismic Sense Toph Beifong had taught other dirt-slingers like her , he could be discovered.

"Did you see anyone come in, Lieutenant?" the Doctor asked him as the Hospital Director confirmed the old wolfbat's death. Shit, of course, they would not assume it was a natural cause. Precisely half an hour ago, a blue-eyed nurse had dressed his injuries in fresh bandages and even heard the dead woman talk in her.

"I am sorry for interrupting, but we need to raise the alarm, there has been a break-in", the eldest son of the Avatar walked in and alerted his sister. Commander Bumi, constantly overshadowed by his bending family, had the best timing.

* * *

 

There were ten blue-eyed nurses in the hospital, six were middle class, four were wealthy enough to buy themselves out of the war and only five were actually the public eye, they all appeared to be benders and some patients had the gall to refuse non-bending nurses, even if they were more qualified than their bending counterparts pissed her off, although Nurse Ming Lee's smug face was a close second.

With the One-hundred Year War now in the past , the medical field made advances with leaps and bounds. This coupled with the rather primitive healing arts during Avatar Aang's time eventually evolved to nursing and after a lifetime of education, doctors. Not many could afford to become a doctor, nor was the pay good enough to remain a nurse, so most water benders took their spirits-damned abilities elsewhere.

Luckily, the rich and wealthy could now encourage their non-bending (and bending) daughters to become nurses before forcing them into an unwanted marriage, as her father had done to her. Water-bending 'healers', were a commodity only few hospitals and clinics could afford, most water benders joined the Police, the Water Plants or the Navy.

"What do you think this was about? Did the rebels take back the villages and are outside the gates ready to slaughter us?" Kimi asked Ting-Ting, who stole glances to the veiled women admitted at the hospital.

"No, a couple of refugees stole some valuables from the dormitories and made off with a handful of the new supplies. They haven't been caught", the pretty Earth Kingdom widow whispered, making Misao wonder what dormitories had been looted.

"How did you find out?"Misao asks curious of how Ting-Ting was so well informed and whether her betrothal necklace was among the things stolen. She had left her jewelry box under her bed along with unfinished letters to her family (and Tarrlok) thinking nothing could ever happen in a place guarded twenty-four seven.

"I was the one who notified Commander Bumi and Director Kya ". Once, she had discounted him on account to his personality, but now that their lives depended on him, Misao Nakamura treated him with genuine respect.

"Whatever plan he has, I only hope it works", Kimiko muttered.

 


	7. Chapter 7

The New Ozai Society at some point had enough wealthy nobles to pay off the glorious bounties on their obstacles' heads. Now with this drunken beggar at the helm, they had fallen so low that they were going to offer him the same trinkets they stole from the wealthier nurses. The Lieutenant looked at the sizable pile of accessories, which could have fed him and the rest of the orphans for a lifetime, with disgust. If they tried to sell even the chain of the fancy betrothal necklace or one of the emeralds on the earrings they had nicked, they would be caught faster than he could say United Forces.

"You should've kept him out of the tavern, Ai" the older of the young women muttered as the other one ,whoever she was , counted the money they had stolen from the rich girls playing nurse at the hospital.

Ai and her sister, were the daughters of the Base's favorite prostitute, it was no wonder Miss Fan did not mention who had sired her two amber-eyed daughters. Being the daughter of the drunkard, who thinks he has a valid claim on the bloody Fire Nation Throne, sounded far worse than being a prostitute's daughter. At least Prostitution did not mean death by fire benders.

The girls' father, the alcoholic hobo passed put in one of the corners of the filthy little house, reminded the Lieutenant of his father, a man who had drank himself into an early grave after the Triads killed his mother for ratting them out to the police. The fading bruises on Ai's face told him this was no harmless drunkard, unlike the man who had abandoned him in the streets of the Dragon Flats Borough.

This Ozai, the former Lord Ibonara, who at the wrong side of forty, claimed to be the late Fire Lord Ozai's bastard and Prinny's real father despite the fact the vagabond looked nothing like Iroh II and the dates did not add up. The delusional man must have fucked the famous prostitute who had an uncanny resemblance to the future Fire Lord. Spirits, Madame Ruby had even gone to become an actor with the money she got off every man who wanted 'the royal experience'.

Perhaps once Ai and her sister managed to sell some of their bounty, he could relieve them of the burden they called 'Father'.


End file.
